Towards the end of the 19th century, a French art dealer called Ambroise Vollard ran a publishing business that was the only place to buy prints for up-and-coming young artists such as Pablo Picasso. The paper he used was distinctive, both in weight and texture: impossible to replicate.
Italian police would beg to differ. Over the past 12 months, in a Europe-wide investigation, detectives have uncovered an art forgery network that faked works by artists including Picasso, Edvard Munch and Paul Klee and distributed them in 23 countries. They used paper designed to appear as if it had come from Vollard’s vaults.
